Various types of downhole drilling tools including, but not limited to, rotary drill bits, reamers, core bits, stabilizers and other downhole tools may be used to form wellbores in associated downhole formations. Examples of rotary drill bits include, but are not limited to, fixed cutter drill bits, drag bits, polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) drill bits, matrix drill bits, roller cone drill bits, rotary cone drill bits and rock bits used to form a wellbore extending through one or more downhole formations. Cutting action associated with these drill bits generally requires weight on bit (WOB) and rotation of associated cutting elements into adjacent portions of a downhole formation.
Rotary drill bits may be formed with blades extending from a bit body with cutting elements disposed on exterior portions of the blades. Various techniques and procedures have been used to select locations for installing cutting elements on the downhole drilling tools. These prior techniques assume that all cutting elements are engaged with a generally uniform downhole formation. However, in typical drilling applications, formations may generally have a relatively low compressive strength in the upper portions (e.g., shallower drilling depths) of the formation and a relatively high compressive strength in the lower portions (e.g., deeper drilling depths) of the formation.